Rockford airport board OKs building purchase

Friday

Jul 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMJul 29, 2011 at 5:24 PM

ROCKFORD — The Rockford airport board voted Thursday to buy the 72,000-square-foot Tandem air cargo building, vacant since it was built in 2008, and lease two-thirds of the space to Anderson Packaging.

Brian Leaf

ROCKFORD — The Rockford airport board voted Thursday to buy the 72,000-square-foot Tandem air cargo building, vacant since it was built in 2008, and lease two-thirds of the space to Anderson Packaging.

The airport will pay $4.9 million for the building developed by Tandem/Rockford Airport LLC. Anderson’s rent starts at $17,725 and increases over the five-year lease, according to airport documents.

Tom Lester, attorney for the Greater Rockford Airport Authority, said Anderson will relocate a Belvidere operation to Chicago Rockford International Airport.

Lester said Anderson, a contract packager for the pharmaceutical industry, gets a significant amount of product from air freight.

The airport board has been meeting for months in closed session, trying to make a deal for the Tandem building. The building is on the airport’s southeast side, on a cargo ramp that was built for $8 million, mostly Federal Aviation Administration money.

Airport officials have been trying to recruit international cargo airlines to the airport for years and saw the Tandem building as a way to lure air freight companies to Rockford.

“We still have 34 percent of the building available,” Lester said. “We’ll keep working on
cargo development.”

No one from Anderson, which is owned by Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen, was available for comment Thursday. Anderson is one of the region’s larger employers. In February, the company said it employed 1,100 people here.

Amy Ott, interim executive director for the airport, said it is still analyzing how to pay for the building. It may tap into its cash reserves, which on May 1 totaled $13.7 million, or seek financing for the acquisition.

“There are a host of options,” Ott said.

The deal with Tandem is expected to close in a month.

Reach staff writer Brian Leaf at 815-987-1343 or bleaf@rrstar.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/B_Leaf.

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